Single-root words are words that are similar in meaning and have a common part. It is easy to guess that this common part should be the root (or one of the roots, if the word is complex). Therefore, first of all, you should understand what a root is. The rule of the Russian language for class 1 says that the common part of related words, which contains their main meaning, is called the root.
Like a tree, the word "grows" from the root.
The ability to correctly select related words (they are the same root) allows us to write correctly. This applies to such an orthogram as an unstressed vowel in the root (for example, in the word “river”, the unstressed “e” is checked by the single-root word “river”, in which “e” is under stress).
Children often confuse family ties with different forms of the same word. So, for the word "mouse" - "mouse" is a single-root word, and "mice" is another form of the same thing. The forms of a word change with a change in its ending, and related words are formed with the help of prefixes and suffixes. Moreover, prefixes can change the meaning of the word even to the opposite. For example, the antonyms ARRIVAL and DEPARTURE are at the sametime in single-root words.
Another common mistake in the definition of cognates is to take for related words those whose root is the same in spelling and sound, but not in meaning. Such roots are called homonymous. For example, in the words "wear", "tray", "porter" - the root -nose-, in the words "nose", "sock", "nose" - also -nose-, but there is nothing in common in their meanings. Words with homonymous roots are not the same root. The opposite situation can be observed in words that are very close in meaning, but do not have a common root. For example: a dog is a puppy, a horse is a foal, etc. The Russian language is not only rich, but also very unpredictable!
Single-root words can be either one part of speech or different (running, runner, runner are nouns; run, run are verbs; running, runaway are adjectives; running is participle).
An interesting point in word formation is the alternation of sounds in the roots of related words, both vowels (dawn - dawn, hang - hung) and consonants (friend-friends-be friends, dry - dry). Variants are possible when consonants alternate with combinations of consonants (drive - driving, catch - catch), and vowels - with a "zero sound", the so-called fluent vowel (father - father, sleep - sleep).
A word with the same root can have two or more roots. Such words are called compound. One root in this case will be related, and the other will serve as the basis for the formation of a new word in meaning. For example: greens - evergreen, earth - tiller,electricity - hydroelectric.
All related words, ordered in relation to their derivatives, together form a word-formation nest. At the base of the nest is a vertex (original word), from which derived single-root words are formed. Examples: sing - singer, sing - sing - sang; old - grow old - become obsolete - obsolete. A derivational nest can be weakly developed (up to two derivatives) and strongly developed (top and more than three derivatives). An example of a strongly deployed nest can serve as cognate words for the word "house": house, house, house, brownie, house, house, home-like, burglar, homeless, homeless, homebody, household, homeowner, housekeeping, housebuilding, housebuilding, orphanage, madhouse.
Now you know what a root word is!
